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When you can’t buy local, buy Fair Trade

You may have heard about blood diamonds, but what about coffee and chocolate? These two products can also have nefarious beginnings, and, fortunately, there’s something you can do about it.

October is “Fair Trade” month at our local Town and Country Markets. When I asked a cashier what that meant, she said they are featuring FT products and providing discounts so folks will give it a try. Good idea!

For most products, I look for the gold-standard – local, small business, organic or recycled ingrediants or materials. But some things – like coffee and chocolate – just don’t grow within 50 miles of Ballard. Unless (until?) global climate change creates the conditions for coffee growing in Washington, we’ll have to rely on our southern friends for quality products.

What is Fair Trade? Basically, it means the people producing your goods are good themselves – paying family wages, using sustainable methods, working cooperatively with the market and the planet. PCC has a good series of articles on the issue, they summarize:

“The Fair Trade certification movement began with coffee. About 18 years ago, liberation theologists and like-minded individuals began helping the mostly indigenous coffee farmers organize themselves into cooperatives, circumvent the local middlemen, and sell directly to processors. That way, even small farmers (their farms average about two acres) could reach the lucrative $9 billion specialty coffee market in developed countries.

In return for a guaranteed floor price ($1.26 per pound compared to a market price that varies from 42 to 60 cents per pound) and help with pre-harvest financing, the coffee cooperatives guarantee good working conditions and fair pay to all their laborers, family and otherwise, along with freedom of association.”

Fair trade coffee is also often shade-grown. I came to learn about this from the Seattle Audubon Society. Believe it or not, your cup o’ joe might be responsible for killing songbirds! With mechanical, corporate coffee farms, the jungle — and songbird habitate – is plowed over. Many fair-trade operations use shade-grown techniques, where the big trees are left alone and birds can nest. SAS has a good article on it.

So, thanks to Ballard Market for highlighting Fair Trade goods. Keep an eye out for the products marked with the logo. And before you drink another cup of coffee, check out Fair Trade Puget Sound for a list of where to buy your next latte.